The Purge
by HotchnerJareau
Summary: Out of all the places she wanted to be that day— she was told to go to work. Her mind began pondering what it was. Was it multiple murders in the area? Did they have a stalker? Was it just a really bad case that the precinct couldn't crack? Between the stress in her family, the stress at work, and her current situation now, JJ was about to rip all of her hair out.
1. Complicated Questions

Jennifer Jareau walked hand in hand with her 5 year old son down the medication aisle, hunting down a certain medicine. They'd just run out of ibuprofen when Henry needed it most. He'd been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes a few months ago, and it had hit the Jareau-LaMontagne household very hard. JJ and Will would break out in fights often, and Henry would refuse to go to school. Home issues effected JJ's work performance, leading Hotchner to give her time off. Most nights, however, she spent curled up in Will's arms, crying over the thought of this disease taking over her baby boy. She felt like she'd everything taken from her. First, she lost a child– a living human being that could've grown up and become someone great, but she never got to meet them. Now, she would be living with a permanent question etched into her mind; _will my little boy wake up tomorrow?_

As the months passed by, things began to get easier. Schedules started fitting into place, and Will and JJ had kept in touch throughout the day. JJ knew every number Henry tested, from sunrise to sunset. JJ came into work earlier, now, knowing that her son was healthy and supervised.

It still picked at her mind– the fact that her son was missing 2 days of school a week for meetings at the hospital. JJ wanted him to be at school everyday, feeling "normal" with his friends, learning new things everyday, but he had to be on constant supervision while he got used to his disease. She was afraid Henry would resent his parents for not letting him have a normal childhood like the rest of his classmates.

"Mommy, I found it!" Henry exclaimed, excitedly pointing up at the medicine box. JJ smiled down at him and picked the box up. The pair looked around the pharmacy a little bit more until they decided to head home. JJ also needed to get started on those letters for the school about Henry's illness. She would have to inform them about why Henry had been gone for a month, even though she phoned the school three times, telling them that Henry was in the hospital. Everything seemed to get more stressful.

JJ didn't like telling Henry's story. She didn't like explaining how her son got sick, how his life changed drastically. It frightened her to even think about it, some nights. The first few nights after Henry's diagnosis, she would lay awake, thinking about everything. They hadn't even seen this coming. She knew it wasn't their fault, but now, it would be if Henry didn't wake up the next morning.

She strapped Henry into his car seat and planted herself at the wheel. Her mind couldn't help but retrace everything, all the way back to the point of which he was in danger.

She remembers him eating and drinking anything he could get ahold of. Will thought it was just a part of growing up, JJ too. Everything seemed fine until Henry started wetting the bed. The parents were obviously disappointed, but he was 5, so it wasn't anything to make a hassle about. This continued for a few weeks until both JJ and Will realized; these were symptoms of something. As the weeks went on slowly, Henry would come home exhausted from school. He'd sleep until dinner, which have him a good 4 hours each afternoon. JJ couldn't explain why this was all happening. Was he not getting hydrated enough? No. If anything, he was drinking more than enough.

Things fully flipped around on November 12. JJ remembers welcoming Will home from work. She remembered it being especially cold outside, because she'd made hot chocolate for them when they came home. As usual, Henry had made his way to the sofa and fallen asleep. JJ worked on dinner. This was a rare occurrence because of her demanding work schedule. Most days, she was on call, and would barely get to do anything in the house. She was overjoyed about making dinner for the first time in what felt like ages. She remembered stirring Alfredo pasta up in the saucepan. JJ remembered going out into the family room to wake Henry up so he could wash up before eating.

He wasn't waking up.

She shook him a little bit, in the hopes of stimulating something, but nothing happened. Panicked, she called Will from his office. He ran into the room and saw his wife freaking out. "He's not waking up!" She practically yelled. Will thought back to all the events that had happened in the past month or so. It suddenly clicked. "We need to get him to the hospital." He said.

**When we arrived at the hospital, the doctors immediately took Henry from us and rushed him away. Several hours later, my husband and I were called in so that they could inform us that he had juvenile diabetes. He had entered severe DKA and was very close to not making-**

JJ stopped typing her letter when she heard lots of crying from upstairs. She immediately rushed up there, and flung open Henry's bedroom door to find him standing across from Will. She knew what was happening. It was time for his site change. Henry hated his site change. It broke JJ and Will's hearts to see their little boy in tears, but they had to see it. They had to help him through this. She watched as Will handled Henry very gently. He nicely changed the site within minutes, leaving a rather content child. The father set a long acting insulin for the nighttime and tucked Henry in.

JJ snapped back into reality when she heard her phone ringing. She reached over and picked it up, noticing it was Will calling. Will was at work. Whatever it was, it was serious. He only texted at work.

"Hey." She said. "Hey darlin'." Was all he said. He sounded worrisome. "We're gettin' dispatches like crazy 'ere. Get to the BAU. My team's on our way." JJ froze. "I-I need to go back and get Henry's stuff then." She gulped, pressing the phone to her ear. "You gotta be quick, Cher, grab everything." The mother couldn't process anything. She just knew she needed everything for Henry. "O-okay. I'll see you there. Love you." She said. "I love you." He replied, and they both disconnected.

JJ quickly turned on the car and backed out in a hurry. "Mommy, where we goin'?" Henry asked, looking ahead. "We're going to mommy's work, but first we need your things from home." It was her day off of work. Out of all the places she wanted to be that day— she was told to go to work. Her mind began pondering what it was. Was it multiple murders in the area? Did they have a stalker? Was it just a really bad case that the precinct couldn't crack? Between the stress in her family, the stress at work, and her current situation now, JJ was about to rip all of her hair out.

Everything was only just beginning.


	2. Unknowing

**Author's Note: Chapter 2 is here. I might have written JJ as a little too emotional, but otherwise, I think I did a good job of portraying JJ's worry and anxiety for Henry as a mother of a T1D child. A review can go a long way for me– keep them coming in!**

**Tiny warning here: there is ONE f bomb. That's all. You don't know how many times I had to take it out of JJ's dialogue. I was feeling the diabetes part with JJ's worry, confusion. Everything about this disease is horrible.**

* * *

JJ arrived at work and burst through the bullpen doors, finding her team in the briefing room. She made sure she was holding Henry's hand, while the other had his supplies. She went up to the briefing room and was greeted by everyone.

"Will called and told me to come. Is everything okay?" She asked, letting Henry sit in her usual spot beside Reid.

"Sorry to call you in on your day off, but we got off the phone with him a while ago... Posters have been found around the city; advertising a 'purge.' The posters claim it's 12 hours out of the day where all crime is legal."

"Crime ain't been legal for even a second! And now they're making it legal for 12 hours?" Morgan spat.

"Unbelievable." JJ shook her head.

"Got 'ere as fast as we could." A familiar voice said from behind.

Henry turned around excitedly. "Daddy!" He ran over and jumped into his arms. He stayed in his father's arms, letting his head drop into Will's neck. It felt great to snuggle with daddy. Especially today, when he wasn't feeling 100%. But, he hadn't told anyone that. If he let the word out, they would ask him a myriad of questions, poke him with needles, or worse–

_Take him to the hospital._

"Al-alright," JJ sighed, "what've what got here?"

"I'd assume homicide, rape, auto theft–" Garcia started, pressing the button on the remote; revealing the horrific images of the scenes.

JJ pursed her lips as she looked at her husband. "Look, Garcia, I'd love to get this case finished with," she rolled her eyes, "but my 5 year old son shouldn't see this. He's seen enough." With that, Garcia and Will took Henry to agents Anderson and Sharp.

"I still don't get it." Reid said to himself, tapping his blue ball point pen lightly on his case file.

"Get what? Your genius brain can't figure something out?" Rossi stressed, leaning back in his chair.

"No, no, this whole purge idea.. All crime is legal for 12 hours... Why not 24? Wouldn't they want a longer time period to commit these so-called legal crimes?"

"And what are you saying?" Morgan raised his eyebrows.

"I'm saying; in the movie-"

"Whoa, there's an entire.. _Movie_ about this?" JJ asked, disbelievingly. People were sick and delusional these days. Killing people because of some stupid movie? "Doesn't look like they get the most original award." She said, flipping through the small package of posters.

Morgan slightly chuckled at JJ's comment. "You haven't seen it?"

"You _have_?" She retorted.

"The purge starts at midnight tomorrow and lasts until 4 in the morning. If we get started now, we might be able to stop it." Hotch said sternly, noticing the look on JJ's face; full of worry and dread. As the other profilers left to get started on paperwork, he stopped her. "JJ? Are you alright?"

She looked up from her gaze and stared at her superior. "I-I'm fine, it's just.. I don't like leaving Henry, you know I don't, and Will and I.. We now both have to work, I mean, when's he ever gonna see his parents?" She felt the twinge in her voice as it broke and the tears began to well up in her eyes. "He's 5.. Aaron. He's diabetic, he's confused, tired, scared, a-and... I don't know how to do this." To Aaron Hotchner, it was quite clear that Jennifer Jareau was very overwhelmed. His eyebrows shot up, along with an understanding look on his face.

"JJ, I understand it's your day off and all-" he took a step closer as she sunk into her chair.

"I don't care if it's my day off anymore! I just want my little boy to feel normal again!" She knew she was crying, she could feel the hot, but strangely cold tears as they streamed down her cheeks. Once her voice had lowered itself, she took a deep breath.

"I want to hold him and tell him it's okay to feel like giving up is all you can do, that I will _never_ understand how he feels. I want to know exactly how he feels, but I can't! I'm confused, okay? I don't understand anything anymore, no matter how hard I try. I don't know how his site changes feel! I don't know the exact amount of pain he's in! You know... There are some mornings I don't even want to get up."

She shook her head, her finger trying to wipe her tears. "But I do, because that little boy makes it all worthwhile. I run into his room, and my heart's racing because I don't know if something happened overnight.. I don't know if his own heart is still beating, and it breaks mine because there is nothing I can do for my own son– my everything. He can't even watch me cry. If he sees me crying, he'll ask questions, he'll wanna know. I can't let him feel like this. I don't understand anything. This wasn't supposed to happen! Our lives are falling apart, Hotch. Look at it. You're a god-damn profiler, Aaron. Did you not notice? I can't do this anymore. None of us. We're tired, we just want everything to go back to normal. Our son didn't cry before he ate. He was so carefree, I could leave him in his bedroom to play for hours and he would be fine.. Now I can't even let him out of my sight. Am I crazy to want a healthy child? Am I crazy–"

She felt herself breaking down even more. She was saying it. She was really saying it. Gulping, she pulled together her words. "Am I crazy for wanting something to feel normal in my sons life? First of all.. His parents are on a demanding schedule. We both feel horrible after some cases. We just want to leave everything. Henry has never felt normal. I'm on a case when it's career day, or when he has to bring his mom for meetings. Will's just the same. The teachers understand how demanding our jobs are. They feel horrible for Henry some days. And now.. Now this. Out of the blue, he's diabetic. He's not only worried if his parents are always there or not, but now he's got to worry about living to see tomorrow. He's never felt normal. I want this to fucking end already!"

Hotch gulped. He really didn't understand. He wanted to, though. He wanted to help JJ and Will through this. He wanted to let them know he was a shoulder. He couldn't help in the way he wanted, which made him angry. He didn't know what it was like to have a diabetic child. He knew Jack would wake up every morning. He didn't have to wake up in the middle of the night just to make sure nothing went wrong. He didn't have to call the school multiple times a day to check up on Jack. He knew he'd be fine. JJ and Will didn't feel that way about their son. He could tell this diagnosis had been ripping JJ apart for the past few months, he could see it in the way she looked at victims, the bodies on the autopsy tables, the way she'd drop her bag on the floor when she same in late. He could see it. Sometimes, she'd come in and sit at her desk, alone in the bullpen, for 20 minutes before meeting the team. He'd also discovered the blonde crying in her car on numerous mornings. It tugged at his heart strings hard, to see his co-worker crying. He knew Will was having a hard time as well. He could tell whenever they all got together for a group dinner. He could see they'd both been left traumatized, scared, stressed, and overwhelmed with everything. Only now, was it coming into play.

Hotchner didn't know what else to say. He left a soft hand on her shoulder and walked out of the room, the thought of JJ and Will filling his mind. He didn't want to leave JJ, but he knew Will would come by and see her. He knew those two depended on eachother like thunder and lightning.

It was a love like this that was next to unbreakable, and the disease they had to cope with on a day-to-day basis was unstoppable. But, they knew they'd pull through eventually.

Day by day.

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**Author's Note: PLEASE REVIEW JJ's BREAKDOWN. I NEED FEEDBACK ON THAT. PLEASE GIVE CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM. I WILL NOT BE LOOKING FOR TWO WORD REVIEWS. I AM SORRY BUT I REALLY WANT TO SEE SOME MEANINGFUL REVIEWS THAT CAN HELP ME OUT. AGAIN, I AM SPECIFICALLY LOOKING FOR REVIEWS ON JJ's BREAKDOWN. ;)**


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